A wire cable tray generally has an elongate shape and a U-shaped section. It includes longitudinal wires, called warp wires, and transverse wires, called weft wires. The warp wires are generally straight and the weft wires U-shaped. All these wires are welded to each other so that they are regularly spaced. This produces a wire cable tray having a meshed structure that includes a bottom for supporting electrical cables (or the like) and side walls, or flanges, intended to retain the electrical cables on the bottom by forming a trough.
A cable tray generally comprises a number of sections assembled end-to-end or at an angle to each other or to produce a T, X, Y or other junction. Using connecting devices commonly referred to as splice bars to connect a number of sections together is known in the art.
The splice bars most widely used are for producing a screwed-together assembly of two cable tray sections. A connecting part is placed on the outside of the cable tray and another on the inside, and these two connecting parts hold two end weft wires sandwiched between them thanks to a screw connecting the two parts.
There are also splice bars that are easier to fit. They are fitted by means of a screwdriver, but this is used only to bend a retaining tongue. The document EP-1360749 discloses one such splice bar, for example. Such splice bars are intended to be mounted on the lateral flanges of a wire cable tray. They are not adapted to be used for the bottom of a cable tray. Note that for cable trays supporting a heavy load, it is necessary to splice two adjacent sections at the level of the bottom of the cable tray. Because of bending of the cable trays under the load represented by the cables, it is necessary to secure the bottom of the cable tray at the level of the connection between two cable tray sections. In such cases, it is necessary to use splice bars fitted by means of screws to the bottom of a cable tray.